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White eyes Twenty20 success

Cameron White is confident the recent Ashes defeat will not affect Australia when they take on England in tomorrow's opening Twenty20 encounter in Adelaide

New Australia Twenty20 captain Cameron White is hoping his side can make the most of a “fresh start” when they take on England at the Adelaide Oval.

The hosts have come in for heavy criticism following their Ashes defeat, which saw them lose three of the five Tests by an innings.

However, a much-changed XI will take to the field for tomorrow’s match and White - who has taken over from Michael Clarke following the latter's retirement from international Twenty20 cricket - does not expect recent events to affect the mentality of the team.

“A good point for us is that Twenty20 and Test cricket couldn’t be further apart,” said the Victorian. “I think there are only three or four guys who have been involved in the Test matches so it’s really a fresh start for this team.

“Hopefully with the change of format and a change of luck, we can go out and play the way we know we can in Twenty20, which has been pretty good over the last 10 or 12 games."

Although White is optimistic over his side’s chances, he insists he will not underestimate the threat posed by an in-form England team, who are looking to record a record eighth successive victory in the game's shortest format.

“Clearly they are in good form and they have got individual players who are in good form,” he added.

“The English players play a lot of Twenty20 cricket so they understand it pretty well. They are clearly well-coached and they will be well-drilled and understand what they have to do to win."

White is relishing the opportunity to captain his country and believes he has the necessary skills to succeed in the role.

Yet the 27-year-old is refusing to think about leading Australia in any other formats at this stage, despite question marks over the future of Ricky Ponting.

“We’ve got two Twenty20 matches I’m going to be captain for and then we don’t play another for seven months so at the moment I’m just worried about that.

“In terms of on-field captaincy, I’ll probably do that in my own way. I have a really good understanding of how Twenty20 cricket works on the field. Tactically, I hope I’m as good as there is and I guess that’s what the selectors have seen.

“Obviously I’m vice-captain for the one-day series, which I’m looking forward to, but I don’t think I need to worry about being captain of any of those other formats because it’s probably not something that’s going to happen in the near future”

“It’s a great honour to be in charge of this team and I’m looking forward to the experience.”